Christophe Fraser, Professor at the Nuffield Department of Medicine and Senior Group Leader at the Big Data Institute and Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, UK; Associate group leader at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute; and Associate group leader at Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genomics., will give a seminar on "Contact tracing to prevent infectious diseases: historical, analogue and digital perspectives".
Contact tracing is a key tool for infection control, and has featured prominently during the COVID pandemic. Contact tracing is also a key tool that we use to understand transmission. Early studies of contact tracing were used to prove infectious aetiology of familiar diseases of unknown origin, such as leprosy in Norway. It is still regularly used to understand the biology of transmission and the effect of interventions. Isolation, contact tracing and quarantine have been used successfully to eradicate potential pandemic outbreaks including Ebola and SARS-COV-1. In early 2020, it was clear that SARS-COV-2 was going to present major challenges due to the speed of transmission. Digital contact tracing was developed and deployed at pace to enhance the response. Effect, uptake, acceptability has been variable by setting, but the potential is now clear. I will describe its development, evaluations, and some implications for future pandemic responses.
Organised by Vice Rector Per Morten Sandset and Professor Nils Chr. Stenseth on behalf of the Pandemic Center Steering Group, UiO.